Arkansas Valley Lady Tigers sink Pirates

Tuesday

It was a skelton crew for both teams as the Arkansas Valley girls' swimming and diving team hosted St. Mary's Thursday at Tiger Gym pool.

The Lady Pirates may have had just a few more swimmers, but the Lady Tigers had the better athletes, as Arkansas Valley defeated St. Mary's 95-53.

"We have a strong top tier of girls and a good middle tier," said AV coach Lisa Korbitz. "So we've been hanging in there pretty well this year. I'm impressed with them being so small."

The Lady Tigers almost swept nearly every event, winning all but one.There was only one Lady Tiger who met a state qualifying mark, as Emily Moreland won the 100-meter breaststroke in 1:25.33. She also won the 100-meter butterfly in 1:20.43.

There was one other two-event winner in Izzie Ball, who won the 50-meter freestyle in 33.31 seconds and the 100-meter backstroke in 1:27.64.

Also winning individual events were Emily Bohl in the 200-meter freestyle in 2:54.46; Gracie Moreland, who won the 200-meter individual medley in 2:58.77; Jordan Fowler, who won 1-meter diving with 126 points; and Teagan Mendoza-Werner, who won the 400-meter freestyle in 6:31.48.

St. Mary's only win came in the 100-meter freestyle, as Grace Arnold won in 1:09.37. It was a close race as she edged Gracie Moreland by 0.07 seconds.

The Lady Tigers won all three relay races. The team of Ball, Bohl, Mendoza-Werner and Natalia Lartitegui won the 200-meter medley relay in 2:44.52. The team of Mendoza-Werner, Ball and the Morelands won the 200-meter freestyle relay in 2:12.01. The team of Bohl, Fowler and the Morelands won the 400-meter freestyle relay in 5:32.41.

Arkansas Valley (2-1) will have just one more home meet this season. On Wednesday, as it will host Fountain Valley at 5 p.m.

"We're on the road almost every weekend for the rest of the season," Korbitz said. "We have a lot of invitationals this year, which will be good to get some more state qualifying times and try to get the girls where they want to be."